What if T.J. Carrie has to start in Raiders secondary?
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders need to get better in a hurry in their secondary. What if this means backup cornerback T.J. Carrie is thrust into a starting role?
The Oakland Raiders may have all the talent in the football world on offense, but the Raiders secondary continues to be a major cause for concern with this football team. Oakland has the personnel across the board to win the AFC West, but will need its defensive backfield to play better to have any shot of a deep playoff run. So how does cornerback T.J. Carrie play into all of this?
Frankly, it has not been a good camp for the Raiders secondary overall. Rookies Gareon Conley and Obi Melifonwu haven’t practiced very much, if at all in Conley’s case, in training camp. High-priced veteran cornerback Sean Smith looks to be also-ran on the outside, especially when he’s not in press man coverage. Second-year safety Karl Joseph does look promising, but we may have seen cornerback David Amerson hit his finite ceiling already.
In essence, the Raiders are going to need a spark from another secondary source to get this defensive backfield on track. Carrie is a prime candidate to do that. He is entering his fourth season with the Raiders out of Ohio. On all accounts, he’s had a good camp for the Silver and Black.
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Where it stands now, while he’s not a starter in the base package, Carrie is projected to be the third corner in Oakland’s nickel package.
In three seasons with the Raiders, Carrie has played in 44 games, recorded 98 tackles, has 21 passes defended, forced three fumbles, recovered three fumbles and has three career interceptions.
Pro Football Focus has him graded out well from his 2016 campaign with the Silver and Black. Carrie had the 49th best grade among NFL corners at 74.1.
That was a better season grade than what Amerson got, as he was just 62nd for NFL corners at 70.7.
Add in the issues that Smith has had in Raiders uniform and one can make the compelling case that Carrie should be more than a nickel cornerback in this defense.
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Ideally, Conley will be a starter for the Silver and Black. He was taken at No. 24 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft for a reason. Still have to get the guy on the field though. So Carrie will certainly push Amerson and Smith for a greater role in the Raiders secondary. With the way that those two are playing, getting more out of Carrie can only be a good thing, right?
In a way, what the Raiders would be doing in putting Carrie into a starting role at corner is raising the secondary’s floor, but limiting its ceiling. Since the defensive backfield is not going to be this team’s strength, it’s best to improve its most glaring hole, even if it limits how good this position group can become in the short-term.
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By having Carrie in the mix to start, all that does is raise the level of competition in the Raiders secondary. If this amps up the play of all involved, so be it. Oakland has the offensive firepower to hang tough with any team in a shootout. If the Raiders fail to reach lofty expectations this year, much of that has to fall on the dismal play of their secondary.